Wearing apparel



June 20," 1939. R. H. GUINZBURG 2,162,810

WEARING APPAREL Filed Jan. 14, 1936 INVENTOR ZATTORNEY Romup H. qumzaun c Patented June 1939 a I r a I 2,162,810 I wnsnmc APPAREL Application January 14, 1936, Serial No. 519 ,071- 2* Claims. (01. 2-34) V UNITED STATES" PATENT OFFICE The present invention relates to wearing aphas substantially the same degree of flexibility parel and, more particularly, to garments'made as ordinary sheet rubber of the same thickness. I of or including elastic material. Another object of the invention is to provide a As heretofore constructed, such articles of garment of sheet rubber material of such charac- 5 wearing apparel as baby pants, ladies girdles, and ter as to provide a soft pleasant surface, therebyother garments which are made wholly or partly eliminating the undesirable surface feel of ordiof rubber, so as to be either waterproof or elastic nary sheet rubber. or both waterproof and elastic, are subject to- The above objects of the invention and other numerous objections. For example, ladies girobjects ancillary thereto will best be understood 0 dles made of sheet rubber are open to the objecfrom the following description considered in contion that the girdles have too much elasticity or nection with the accompanying drawing. extensibility in a longitudinal direction, that is, In the drawing: longitudinally of the wearer, because ordinary Fig. 1 is a front view of one'type of garment, sheet rubber has substantially the same elasticity namely, baby pants, made in accordance with the or extensibility in all directions. On the other. present invention; hand, the elasticity of a girdle in a direction ion-'- Fig. 2 is a view of another type of garment, gitudinally of the wearer should, be limited and namely, a ladys girdle made in accordance with preferably substantially less than the elasticity of I the present invention; and

r the girdle in a circumferential direction. Sim- Fig. 3 is a plan view of a piece of material,

ilarly, such garments as baby pants should prefshowing a modification of the present invention; 20 erably be elastic circumferentially of the wearer The baby pants Ill, shown in Fig. 1, and the but of limited elasticity in a longitudinal direclady's girdle |2,shown in Fig. 2, maybe of anytion. well known or preferred construction. In accord- Girdles possessing different elastic characterance with the present invention, however, both of istics with respect to their circumferential and these garments are made of thin sheet rubber 25' longitudinal directions have been produced by material which is substantially elastic in one dimaking such girdles of elastic webbing, that is, rection and of reduced elasticity in another of woven or knit textile material in which elastic direction. More specifically, when a garment strands are incorporated in such manner that suchas the baby pants to or the girdle i2 are the girdle has the desired degree of elasticity cirmade of the sheet rubber material of the present 30 cumferentially of the girdle and reduced elasinvention, it has considerable elasticity or exticity longitudinally thereof. Such materials. betensibility in a circumferential direction, that is, sides being relatively expensive, are not entirely in a direction encircling the body of the wearer, satisfactory and are unsuitable for certain purbut has substantially reduced elasticity in a lon- I poses, particularly where the waterproof or airgitudinal direction.

imperviousv quality of the material is desired, as In accordance with the present invention, in for example, in such garments as baby pants making said material, any suitable commercial and reducing girdles. rubber, as, for instance, washed and dried rub- One object of the invention is the provision of her, may be used. The rubber may be introduced 40 garments made of fluid-impervious sheet rubber into the processing either in the relatively un 40 material which is inherently elastically different manufactured condition in which it arrives from in different directions. the plantation or other native source, or may.

Another object of the invention is the provihave been advanced through the manufacturing sion of sheet rubber garments possessing differstages to become batched or broken down rubent circumferential and longitudinal elasticities. her. For instance, the rubber may have been 45 Another object of the invention is to provide advanced, from the stage of the crepe type ofa garment made of sheet rubber which is of high plantation rubber, through one or more stages flexibility and yet can be readily subjected to of a batching process, to prepare it for emcient garment-manufacturing operations such as processing in accordance with the invention. The

stitching or similar processes, thereby making it batch is worked upon apparatus such as a mixing 50 unnecessary to laminate rubber sheets with a texmill, or a rubber masticator'oi like eifect. The tile fabric. manner of this processing may follow substan- Another object of the invention is to provide 'tialiy the usual course of manipulation used on garments made of sheet rubber which, while of mixing mills, especially in the first period where substantially reduced elasticity in one direction, the rubber is broken up and softened for the sub- 55 sequent processing. While the rubber is feeding through the masticator or mill, and after an interval of about twenty minutes, depending upon the particular batch of rubber, customarily devoted to breaking down the rubber, there is introduced into the mass of rubber, for incorporation thereinto, a quantity of flock. The propor-' tions of fiock may be varied in accordance with certain factors inthe product desired, as, for instance, the thickness of the sheet intended. to be produced,.and other factors of commercial importance.

The mixture thus produced is subjected to a sufficient mastication to effect, at this stage, substantially complete incorporation of all the flock into, and uniform distribution of such flock throughout, the rubber. In this masticating op,- eration, other compounds such as coloring matter may be introduced.- It was found that, on the mixing mill, fine grinding of the batched rubber and flock assisted in securingv substantially uniform distribution, the end point of the mastication being reached by setting the rolls closely up toward each other, in one case so that they were but about one-sixteenth inch apart.

The substance introduced at the mixing mill for the manufacture of this type of rubber may be described as extremely fine fibres, such, for instance, as are found in textile fibres. Such fine fibres may be reduced to an even finer state than the normal condition in commerce, as, for instance, by grinding or by some similar operation. The particular fibres used in preparing certain embodiments in accordance with the invention include fibres of the animal type, such as silk 1 which had been reduced to a very fine, powdery condition. In fact,

flock introduced was found this flock is as fine as flour, so fine that the individual fibres are barely, if at all, visible to the naked eye. It has been found that the finer the flock used, the more accentuated are the results secured. Such fineness makes possible the production of very thin sheets without pin holes. Also, the amount of to be most effective when, into the masticator, there were introduced between eight to twenty parts of flock for each ninety-two to seventy-five parts of rubber and other compounds. Rubber processed in this manner could be calendered into sheets between five one-thousandths and twenty-five one-thousandths of an inch, although only gauges between twelve one-thousandths and twenty onethousandths were necessary for commercial use. All of these factors can be arrived at without the introduction of any brittleness into the sheet.

After mastication, while the resultant rubber preferably is given the usual rest, it may immediately, or after such a rest, be removed to the calender rollers. While ordinary temperatures of calendering'may suffice for the manufacture of a product within invention, it has been found that a slight rise in the neighborhood of 10 F. to 20 an appreciable development of the erties of the product.

The mass of incorporated rubber and flock is calendered without any material change from desired propthe method practiced by skilled calender crews certain of the elements of this F. resulted in rolls in the usual manner, and made up in readiness for vulcanization.

Even after "the mixing operation, the rubber is found to have attained a degree of non-elasticity in the line in which it is removed from the rolls. This characteristic is found to be even more enhanced when the material passes, in its unvulcanized state, from the calender rolls.

Accordingly, the material when utilized for making such garments as baby pants and girdles, is cut so that the direction of reduced elasticity is in the longitudinal direction of the garment or at' right angles to the circumferential or bodyencircling direction.

After calendering and preferably a suitable rest period, the sheet may be subjected to vulcanization. In this stage of processing, substantially any suitable method may be followed. However, the acid cure or vapor cure has been found most effective in delivering a rubber having the desired characteristics. After vulcanization, the condition of unelasticity is found to be even more marked, and set in the sheet. However, fiexibility is substantially unaffected, whereas toughness appears to be measurably increased. When coloring matter is introduced during processing, it. takes effect uniformly and without difiiculty. The sheet may be cut and formed into different articles of wearing apparel, and it may be stitched, the stitches holding substantially as if in a textile, and without tearing. I

In making certain garments, such as the baby pants III, the material may "be cut and at least partly assembled in its unvulcanized state and subsequently vulcanized. garment III, a sheet of the unvulcanized material may be cut to the desired pattern to provide the rear portion l4 and the front portion l6 provided with the leg openings l8. Also, the material may be cut to provide the openings 20 which improve the fit of the garment. To form the garment ID, the side edges of the sheet are overlapped between the openings I 8 and 20 at each side of the garment and secured together by subjecting them to the pressure of a knurling roller forming the unstitched seams 22. If desired, a rubber cement may be used for forming said seams alternatively or additionally to the pressure of said roller. The garment is then vulcanized and subsequently, in order to shape the garment and to increase the extensibility thereof at the waist and leg openings, the material may be gathered adjacent said openings and bindings 24 may be attached preferably by stitchingof a well known character which permits the garment to expand and contract. Said bindings. may be of any suitable material but are preferably formed from the material of the present invention cut from the sheet and arranged in the garment to be circumferentially elastic. The girdle I2 is formed preferably from the vulcanized sheet material in accordance with any well known manufacturing method.

Sheet rubber material made in accordance with the above described process possesses considerable elasticity in one direction although said material even in that one direction is somewhat less elastic than ordinary sheet rubber.

In accordance with a modification of the present invention, the sheet material is substantially inelastic in both directions, thus making it possible to use such substantially inelastic fluid-impervious material for making garments or parts thereof which are substantially inelastic. This is accomplished in accordance with the, present in- I 'vention by combining two of the sheets in an uncalender rolls. Referring to Fig. 3

vulcanized state,'after they are removed from the of the drawing, the unvulcanized sheets A and B, each made as described above, are superposed on each other so that the direction of non-elasticity of the-sheet A, as indicated by the double arrow on said sheet, is at right angles to the direction non-elasticity of the sheet B, as indicated by the doublearrow on the last mentioned sheet. Then the superposed sheets are passed through calender rolls which cause them to be firmly united with each other throughout their contacting surfaces so that it is practically impossible to distinguish one preformed'sheet from the other, the two sheets being welded together and forming, in eflect, a sheet of single thickness. Finally, the sheet material thus produced is vulcanized, and the resulting product is substantially inelastic in both directions. It is within the scope of the present invention to make any of the garments of tially of thisqaterial.

While I have shown and described several of the preferred embodiments of the invention, it will be understood that the invention is capable of being embodied otherwise than as herein shown and described and that certain changes in the particular composition or the material and in the steps of the process of making the latter may be made without substantially departing from the invention. Accordingly, the present description and drawing are to be considered, as illusthe class described, in- 'cluding the garments l0 and I2, wholly or partrative oi the invention, and I do not wish to be limited thereto except as may be required by the appended claims considered with reference to the prior art.

Having thus describedmy invention, what I de- 3 sire to claim and secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A reducing girdle comprising a member adapted to encircle the body of the wearer and composed of thin, flexible and elastic sheet material comprising sheet rubber having finely divided flock incorporated therein and being substantially more elastic in one direction than in another at right angles to said first direction, said mate rial being arranged in the girdle so that said body encircling member is substantially elastic circumferentially thereof and is substantially less elastic in a longitudinal direction.

2. A garment of the class described comprising a member adapted to encircle the body of the wearer and which possesses substantial elasticity circumferentially and limited elasticity longitudinally, said member being made of thin sheet rubber material having finely divided textile flock incorporated therein and being inherently uniiormly elastic in one direction and inherently of uniformly reduced elasticity in another direction,

said material being cut and arranged in the garment so that said body encircling member is substantially elastic circumferentially thereof and substantially less elastic in a longitudinal direction.

- ROLAND H. GUINZBURG. 

